Heatherleys Head of Printmaking, Hilary Daltry, has co-curated an exhibition of prints celebrating two women buried in Brompton Cemetery, Jane Wardle and Emmeline Pankhurst.
EXHIBITION DATES 24th September – 5th October 2018 (open Monday – Friday 9.30am– 5pm)
PRIVATE VIEW Tuesday, 2nd October between 6–8pm
Hilary says:
“Over the years I have taken my students to Brompton Cemetery, the only garden cemetery which is managed by The Royal Parks. In 2014 I was invited by The Friends of Brompton Cemetery to exhibit prints in the Chapel and this became a regular feature on Open Day (In 2014, 2015 and 2016).
Last year after the completion of the Chapel restoration programme and opening of the new café and meeting place I applied to the Community Chest programme to fund this current project.
The exhibition is an artistic collaboration between girls of St. Marylebone C of E School and Heatherleys School of Fine Art. The girls (year 9) visited the cemetery and attended a workshop at Heatherleys to learn about etching in the print department.
[In 2013 I had worked on another joint project, ‘Etchings of Marylebone’ a suite of etchings of St. Marylebone church and a book was produced with the students.]
My colleague Dora Wade at St. Marylebone, came up with the title of our exhibition ‘The Scientist and the Firebrand’, which is based on the lives and legacy of Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the campaign for women’s votes one hundred years ago, and Professor Jane Wardle of UCL, the latter an inspiring cancer scientist buried at Brompton. Following the anniversary of the suffragette movement the project has engaged the girls in this topical issue, relevant to both St. Marylebone and the history of Brompton Cemetery.
Heatherley’s has shared its expertise with the young students, introducing them to the world of etching and the girls have all drawn on the zinc plates prepared with etching hard ground, which they draw through at school. They were then etched and the plates were printed at Heatherley’s.
Also included in this exhibition are works by my Friday class. The etchings by the school students include hard ground techniques and the Heatherley students are also showing soft-ground etchings, aquatints, and photo etchings. All of the etchings are done to a standard size, making a coherent group of works, which are presented in 40 x 40 cm frames. The subject matter includes a portrait of the oldest suffragette, a portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst, and images of the struggle for Women’s votes, as well as images connected to Professor Jane Wardle. [There is another etching of celebrated 19th century doctor John Snow (who stopped the spread of cholera) who is also buried at Brompton Cemetery]. Colour is applied sparingly using the suffragette colours of violet, green and white applied to some prints in the technique known as Chine Collé.”